Category Archives: Composing in Camera

07/27/19

The Power of REFLECTIONS in Creative Photography

Ideas on the PHOTO COMPETITION THEME of REFLECTIONS, and a few images to illustrate some diverse ways of creatively approaching this assignment.

I want you to have fun with this one!

Part of the Convergence series – first exhibited in 2014 at Mason Murer Fine Art.
The rippled water surface created a painterly brush stroke effect…
entirely in camera with no post production needed.

Here is a special message to the ROSWELL PHOTOGRAPHIC SOCIETY from Robin:

“Soon I will be judging your Photo Competition and the Theme is one of my favorites… REFLECTIONS!

When I last spoke to your group, I talked about “Dream Assignments” that we can give to ourselves, and the creative use of REFLECTIONS in photography is a great SELF-ASSIGNMENT and one that I’ve given to myself …MANY times!

Here below I’ve shared some images from my past exhibitions, where REFLECTIONS are a major element. In creating these SERIES of images, I first formulated a defined visual plan to follow.”

If you would like to create your own personal SELF-ASSIGNMENT, I am happy to offer you my half price PERSONAL SESSION to envision and complete your own Dream Project. From these fun and helpful sessions, my students have created meaningful photographs that they really love.

Five ideas to consider for your upcoming themed competition on REFLECTIONS:

#1 – Titles are important, and sometimes even a short one-line description of your intent can clue-in your viewer, to engage them, and give them a deeper understanding of the purpose of your image, or perhaps some of the photographic decisions you made while creating the image.

Just a few words can go a long way to make your photograph more meaningful to the viewer, who was not there when you made the shot.

The Series Title: AQUA AVIA – Birds in their natural elements of both air and water

Wild Bird Images were combined with Patterns of Water REFLECTIONS and printed on Silk

#2 – When we think of Reflections in photography, the first thing that pops into our mind are images of nature reflected in water. With this subject, it is deeply satisfying to practice our COMPOSE in CAMERA technique that we talked about!

Get closer and closer AS you a photographing your subject and do NOT after-crop. This is the way we discover fascinating shapes, hypnotic patterns, and abstractions that dynamically FILL our FRAMES edge to edge! These are the photos you will really love.

Fine Art Photo Exhibition Poster for Convergence Series by Robin Davis
The TITLE Convergence refers to the focal point
where both the nature reflection + the water’s surface patterns combine as one.
(Poster Design, Typography and Photography by Robin Davis)

#3 – The term REFLECTIONS can mean a lot of different things and is open to your interpretation. Please feel free to explore this to the fullest! While judging, I will be looking for personal creativity in each of your entries. If you feel the call to go beyond the obvious, then I support you!

“BEST FRIENDS, PRIVATE REFLECTIONS”
Street photography from the June Cortona Italy Workshop

Going deeper into the realm of the mind, a reflection could also be illustrated as a pensive or introspective moment. If you like photographing people, or creating dramatic stories, perhaps there is a deeper psychological theme that you would like to tell with your camera. Please note that if you choose to define the word REFLECTION in this way, be sure your photo’s TITLE describes it well, and perhaps include a short blurb or artist’s statement that supports your image’s intent.

This is a preview of a NEW SERIES that I will be exhibiting at pb&j Gallery in October.
The theme of strong archetypal women is one that I return to again and again.
Here my model Morgan, is playing the part of THE SORCERESS who is watching you from her magic mirror!

#4 – You may also consider other reflective surfaces such as mirrors, metal, or glass, and you may choose to show your reflected subject in tandem WITH its reflection to visually entertain us. I know you will find many exiting reflective surfaces to play with, and I cannot wait to see what you come up with!

#5 – One last thing to be sure to AVOID is any elements that do not serve your composition! A foreign or incongruent object (or piece of OFFENSIVE SHRUBBERY as I like to say!), should be consciously composed out of, or if necessary, retouched out of, your full image frame. Just be aware of those pesky branches, or unintentional wires or poles that sneak into the edges of your perfect image area, and be on guard to keep them out!

Here are some more examples below, and thoughts on designing your own photographic series.

Mysterious images with water reflections in classical themes,
with the sphinx, goddess, centaur, and a giant collossus figure.
These images were created in Pompeii and Ravello Italy, and Paris, France.
The final images for exhibition were printed on metal panels to enhance the reflective feel.
With this series the mirrored image was designed to relax & entertain the mind of the viewer.
It also serves to simplify and beautify the FOREGROUND of each shot.
In this series the clouds, forms and backgrounds were all really there
and composed WITHIN the frame of the cellphone camera.
The ADDED reflections were generated by phone APPS to mirror the original scene.
Le Sphinx Egyptienne 2 – ©Robin Davis

And here are two more examples that I will conclude with…

Here’s a CORTONA CENTER of PHOTOGRAPHY example that we created with the workshop class… The assignment? …to light our subject like a Renaissance Painting.
The secret?? …it’s actually the REFLECTION in a very old and spotty mirror.
Some fun on St. Simons Island during the Coastal Georgia Workshop…
Reflections add a beautiful dimension to our photos and we are always on the lookout for ways to use them to support our subjects and complement our overall design.

I hope this has been helpful to you, and I look forward to seeing you all soon!

-ROBIN

03/31/19

A FILM mentality in a DIGITAL world

Here are my thoughts for making each shot count, with a FILM attitude that has kept me on track to creating fewer, and BETTER digital pictures.

Those of us who recall the days of film and processing, or those who’ve done darkroom printing, will know the look I am talking about. That painterly grittiness, the dark border of the film, highlights glowing from the richly saturated emulsion… it was the PROCESS itself that determined the look we would get, and we used that for creative effects.

Different types of film had their own unique tonalities and beautiful textures of grain that could romanticize away the clutter and distractions of everyday reality. Images were simpler, and easy on the eye. Push processing (underexposing film and leaving it in the developer longer) would even enhance this velvety quality. The first time I was able achieve these effects with a Digital Camera was an incredibly happy moment for me!

In the days of buying rolls of film and paying for processing, each shot was precious. You had 36 frames on a roll and just 36 chances at a time, so we made each one count. Often my best, most carefully nuanced shot was… #36! The dance we did with our subjects, whether a person, or a landscape, was a series of little refinements that we made, shot by shot. When we would have to stop and reload the next roll of 36, the energy would drop, and we would start all over again, in a new way, with a new approach to the next series of shots.

When we started shooting with digital, it was as if we had unlimited free film! Woo-Hoo! right?, However the result was way too many mediocre photos, and after hours of editing, it was difficult to make a definitive decision and pick the best one. So I though back to the days of 35 mm film and this is what I decided. I would honor the 36 chances on an imaginary roll to get it right. Each shot became more precious (as IF I were paying for film and processing again) and this awareness made me slow down and direct my intention more fully, and as a result I became a more thoughtful photographer! Soon I was taking fewer, and better pictures, and editing became easier as well. It was no longer such a chore, and my best shot, like the last frame on the roll of 36, would clearly jump out at me.

A recent Lighthouse photo from Robin’s Workshop demonstration, at St. Simons Island Georgia
Robin Davis Photography - creative digital photography
My first digital art photo success story! Low light and a High ISO setting created a grainy film-like effect that I had been missing.

03/14/18

The Three Superpowers of Effective Street Photographers

Street Photography is an art form all in itself. It is a timed dance we do with our subject AND the setting… a perfect moment, a caught emotion, all with the subject placed in harmony within the total scene. The Three Superpowers of Effective Street Photographers are real exercises that we will practice together.

There is a zone we step into when we are in this mindset. Our cameras become a part of our very being as we see the world as a composition of shapes and lines that fully fill our frame. People are not only our subjects, they are PART of an interconnecting design, a balance of everything we have CHOSEN to allow within our image.

Street Photography has a timeless magic that NEVER goes out of style! In addition to picturesque villages and landscapes, we also have incredible opportunity to hone our street photography skills… fun techniques we will be practicing together in Robin’s fun upcoming workshops, in Coastal Georgia, the Languedoc Region of Southern FRANCE, & THE CORTONA CENTER OF PHOTOGRAPHY Summer and Fall classes in Cortona, ITALY!

Cortona Center of Photography Workshop in the Tuscany Region of Italy offers a variety of subject matter including great Street Photography.

What are The Three SUPERPOWERS of Effective Street Photographers?

 

#1 – If you watch them closely… you will see that the very best street photographers have developed a cloak of invisibility. They have a knack for blending into the scene as they watchfully survey, checking the light and their camera settings, making sure they are set up and ready for anything. As they fiddle with their camera settings the bustling townspeople begin to ingore them, and forget they are even there. When the perfect moment does come, and an incredible subject appears, they are already prepared with the technical decisions… their exposures are preset and focus area preordained, so they are totally free to concentrate on pure composition. This is when the magic happens, and they are dialed into the heartbeat of the perfect moment, catching that shot, and it will not be overexposed or blurry.

#2 – Effective Street Photographers also seem to have the power to predict the future. They know where to be standing and already have their cameras focus and exposure preset, so all they have to do is wait for their subject to appear as they expected, magically aligned in the light, set against a darkened archway, not overexposed and not blurred, a moving foot frozen in perfect separation, just off the ground. Was it just luck? Not at all. They were ready; they thought and planned ahead.

#3 – When watching the great masters of street photography at work, you will be amazed at their patience. They do not rush. They are in their own dimension where they can slow down time. As if in slow motion, they fade into the crowd and become one with their scene, waiting as long as it takes for an interesting person to walk by, or for a perfect alignment of figures and architecture, light shapes against dark, or dark set against light… all crystallizing into that split second that makes ONE great shot! Working within this mindset, THEY DO NOT TAKE VERY MANY PICTURES! They are not gunning on continuous mode, they are watching and waiting with that special understanding, that is also a deep appreciation of the rhythms of the true pulse of life itself.

 

Coastal Georgia is the next scene where we will be practicing these fun techniques, as well as the Languedoc region of Southern France in May, and of course the winding streets and piazzas of Tuscany during the Cortona Italy Workshop in June.

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Below is info from our last Macon Georgia Spring Cherry Blossom workshop, and we will be returning in MARCH of 2019. CONTACT ROBIN FOR DETAILS

 

The Three Superpowers of Effective Street Photographers Come to our Macon Georgia Photo WorkshopWhen we feel the entire scene coming into alignment,
that is when we snap, being careful not to cut off the feet!

 

“Street Photography” can mean just going out and walking around with your camera to see what you find. In a deeper sense, it means having a profound respect for what you do control, balanced with what you do NOT control.

On the flipside, our photos that are set up and posed should be balanced by something unexpected, that we do not totally control to add interest to the shot. For our last round of the day in Macon, Georgia 2018 we will work quickly with character actors in costume to design images that transcend the expected.

It’s all in the HANDS! Our Actor Friends know how to put on a show
and GESTURE is a big part of bringing their characters to life.
Our last shoot of the day is partially posed, partially with action.

 

Some fun and unscripted moments from our past Macon workshop…

 

If you are interested in honing your eye and photographic timing, and enjoying some fun camaraderie, then our small group workshop in MACON, GEORGIA is perfect for you.

The group energy and short morning discussion will rev you up and inspire you and each photographer will have room to spread out and shoot in there own timeframe in the afternoon. Each participant will be given a printed Field Card with the 5 directives that they will be practicing during the day.

Our mindset is to be prepared with our camera settings in case something happens quickly. This is the element of control that we bring with us. The second trick is to stay loose and expand your awareness, open your field of vision and see what might be coming our way. For example, If a man in a white hat is headed toward the darkened arched door of an old warehouse… Have your focus and exposure preset so you are READY to catch him when he gets there!

We will also have fun opportunities to direct our subjects, ask them to move into better light for us, or against a beautiful antique doorway from Macon’s fantastic historic architecture, which will be our incredible backdrop. Don’t be disappointed if you miss some shots, or have some almost great ones; it is like waiting to catch the big fish, and the patience and dedication that goes into the making is what makes those greatest of shots so special! It’s that momentary ray of light or a fleeting expression that we had no control over at all, that makes us appreciate this style of photography so much!

ONE MORE THOUGHT…

Quality over Quantity: It is not always easy to capture these serendipitous moments, but that is what makes the hunt so alluring! Just ONE spectacular image from a shoot is golden, and we should edit for the best of the best, post only this one, and not many shots from the day that are not as strong. If you do decide to show more than one, then each should be as great as the next. Many similar images, or switching from color to black-and-white versions is fatiguing to your viewer, who does not want to be your editor. As photographers, we make the decision on what is our best image to entertain our viewing audience.


I am deeply thankful for my teachers who taught me to see the world in my own way, a strong lineage I am honored to pass down to my students and I will be writing more about them this month.

 

©2018 Robin Davis, text and images, all rights reserved.